Tea with Dinner

I have to laugh how things can change.  I used to be a person who had tea when they were having tea, and ate when he was going to eat.  I almost never even had a small snack with my tea even though it can be fairly common. However with schedules being what they have been lately, I've found almost the only time I can have tea would be if I start brewing tea around the same time I start cooking dinner.  Typically eating while imbibing on the last few steeps of which ever tea I happened to be brewing.

While I've never been one to work on pairings, even in the wine world, I mostly think if you are eating what you like to eat, and drinking what you like to drink it will be OK 90% of the time. However I will say mild dishes seem to go well with green tea, and spicy dishes with darker teas.

However this also seems to be changing the *ceremony* of it all.  Brewing tea is also seldom the private meditation it once was, I now am doing about eight different things instead of waiting for the kettle to boil and then steeping the tea.   It has lost the private meditation it used to be, that helped keep stress in check, and had me leave the tea table incredibly relaxed and ready to continue on with the day.  Now it seems akin to grabbing a coffee and drinking it while running errands, or throwing a teabag in a cup of hot water and letting it steep while you slowly drink it to nothing.  Nothing is inherently bad in either of those endeavors, however I feel they lose the draw that was tea for me, and instead it is all now just an energy drink delivery system.

So while tea with dinner can be fun, it certainly has caused a loss in the desire to appreciate tea.  When tea loses the private meditation and reflection, is there much left?